Puckman wrote in post #17832434Merry Christmas everyone. Been laying low lately, but headed out on a road trip to Arizona tomorrow. As usual, gear decisions are killing me. The good news is I'm driving, so I can take as much gear as I want. I'm still trying to keep it reasonable. So here's my question: I plan on doing some minor Astro out there in the desert. What lens should I focus on? I have a couple of fast wide primes FD 24/2.8 and CV 35/1.7. I have faster, but longer (85/1.4 Rokinon). And a bunch of slower zooms. What would you try? I kinda wish I had the Rokinon 24/1.4, but I don't. Thoughts?

And what's the basic rule of Astro? I'm new to it. High ISO (3200?) wide open?

Dean, use your widest lens (24mm 2.8?) And shoot at iso 6400 in the darkest sky you can find. Use the 500 rule for exposure so 500/focal length = 20 secs max then adjust from there. Keep lner switched on. F/2.8 isn't ideal but should still work. I've shot the milky way at 3.5 before. As long as the sky is dark enough you will be fine. If dark enough you could even try one click down on the aperture if wide open isn't working out for you (not sure how that FD lens performs). If you find a really dark sky you could lower your iso a bit too . You could also try your 35 1.7 lens (14 secs max) and see how you go. The faster aperture might make up for the shorter duration required

Finally remember that the moon phase being about 95% full tomorrow will not help your case either. Even in the darkest of skys if the moon is out it will make a bit of what you could see disappear. Hence the new moons every month being key astro photography nights.

For the milky way in the Northern Hemisphere, the core is visible from March to October but you can still see the milky way outwith those months (just not the core).

Ideally you use a wider lens and use the 400 rule instead of the 500 but the 400 will still work but you may have trailing at the extremes of the frame. I wouldnt even bother trying your 85mm lens without a tracker as you will have about 5 seconds exposure time available.

I was using my Nissin i40 yesterday and have to say it is superb!. The size is matched perfectly to the sony body and it functions really well. It took me a bit at first to get used to when bouncing as I wasnt used to having a flash on camera. I always used my speedlight off camera previously as it was just to big on the body for my taste (even on my DSLR). Im now getting more used to where I should be directing the flash for the most even spill of light from the bounce.

It seemed to result in cold WB shots a lot of the time initially even when using the flash WB setting but its easily sorted in post. This was mainly evident in my own living room but I have white walls and ceilings so that may have been the issue. I used it elsewhere and the WB seemed correct.

The thing I LOVE about it is the on flash FEC dial when using ETTL mode. It makes on the fly alterations so easy.

Only negative I found (and still not sure 100% if its an issue) is that due to the nature of ETTL there is a VERY slight delay between the pre-flash and the main flash. For adults this is fine but for my son who doesnt look at the camera for more than a split second normally it could be an issue, and by that I mean when I am at the ready to take a shot, I manage to get his attention and he looks at the camera, I click the button and the pre-flash fires and by the time the main flash fires and the exposure is taken he has looked away a bit. Having said all that I was still getting shots when I felt this had happened so it may not be that big of a deal - further testing is required.

Now this is no fault of the flash and is more of a consequence of using ETTL with young kids. This would happen with any flash using ettl.

For the price I would recommend this flash to anyone with a Sony body.

jocau wrote in post #17832650How is the build quality of the Nissin i40? Is it as robust as let's say a Canon Speedlite 580EX II or a LumoPro LP180?

Its easily as well built as my old Canon 430 EX II and my current Yongnuo YN 560 III. It feels solid in the hand. Im very impressed with it.

Also - I just realised that when using it it automatically changes the camera to flash WB and also automatically switches setting effect to OFF. I was manually setting these settings yesterday before attaching the flash without realising.

Some shots from my recent trip to paris. I love la defense because of its architecture! Many photographic opportunities. First time using the CV15 on the A7R2. Pretty impressed with the low distortion on the 15 and its sharpness is pretty good too.

xpfloyd wrote in post #17832660Steve Huff - "and tilt shift..no one makes those anymore and while you can get them for Canon and Nikon, they are on the decline as software does all that a tilt shift lens does these days"

What?!?!? Software can now change the plane of focus in post so that its not square to the sensor?? What software is this - take my money now!

If you can use software to correct perspective, I suppose you could as easily use it to warp perspective. What Huff fails to understand is that a PC lens will give you a correction that leaves you with a full frame of digital information, rather than a diminished frame of cropped information. This is still a useful tool and I believe it will always be useful. As for which programs do the best job in correcting in software, I think DxO leads the pack, but certainly the inexpensive ACDSee Pro editing and browsing tool has an easy to use perspective correction tool. You still lose part of your image, however. And you may create other distortions as in the elongation of the bell tower.

advaitin wrote in post #17832744If you can use software to correct perspective, I suppose you could as easily use it to warp perspective. What Huff fails to understand is that a PC lens will give you a correction that leaves you with a full frame of digital information, rather than a diminished frame of cropped information. This is still a useful tool and I believe it will always be useful. As for which programs do the best job in correcting in software, I think DxO leads the pack, but certainly the inexpensive ACDSee Pro editing and browsing tool has an easy to use perspective correction tool. You still lose part of your image, however:

Perspective is one thing but im not talking about correcting or warping it, with tilt you can change the plane of focus so that its not square to the sensor. If you have already taken a shot on a normal lens there is no software in the world that can then take a section that is out of focus and make it in focus. Huff has completely misunderstood/missed one of the main functions of a tilt shift lens I.e. tilt. I normally quite like his site but starting to realise he shows a lot of favour towards certain manufacturers and not others. He's turning into a bit of a ken rockwell type character

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